Organizers of Syracuse University’s Homecoming Ceremony are hoping to make the process of selecting royalty as democratic as possible.

Members of the Homecoming Court will now be selected from a field of nominees open to all students on campus. Instead of electing court members through an online vote by seniors, as was the case last year, organizers hope the new system will open up the event to everyone on campus.

‘In recent years, students not in an organization wouldn’t ever have had a chance to be nominated,’ said Andrew Watson, one of three committee chairmen for the homecoming selection committee and a junior speech communication and rhetorical studies major. ‘We’re trying to make it campus-wide and get more students involved rather than it be just a greek life activity.’

Student organizations, including club sports, will be able to nominate one individual, while students not involved in an extracurricular activity can be nominated for the court by a professor.

A pre-selected committee of four faculty and four students will then determine the 10 students named to the Homecoming Court. On top of giving every student a better chance of being on the court, organizers said the new process will ensure the most worthy students get chosen for homecoming king and queen.

‘Students have been unsure about previous kings and queens – who they are and why they represent the university,’ said Laura Brientnall, one of three homecoming chairs and a junior in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. ‘This should ensure that it is not just someone from greek life who is elected, and all different organizations have a say in who is going to be king and queen.’

Applications will be sent to student organizations’ mailboxes and be available at the Office of Student Affairs and the Office of Greek Life and Experiential Learning in the Schine Student Center. Information will also be available on a Web site organizers hope to have up by the beginning of next week.

‘We decided to make it committee because it is a lot faster, a lot quicker, and a lot more fair,’ said Afroviti Guta, a junior international relations major who is on the homecoming committee. ‘If you have it online, you can have a bunch of people vote for one person; that doesn’t mean that’s the most worthy person. This way you have more people who might fit the criteria to be in the Homecoming Court.’

The change in the Homecoming Court is a part of other modifications in SU’s Homecoming, scheduled this year between Oct. 7 and 10. The changes, including a larger parade route and more student involvement, were the collective effort of an open forum of 37 other student groups, including DanceWorks and the Residence Hall Association, with the homecoming organizing committee.

The group effort involved with the changes should help bring the university together for homecoming.

‘It’s much more visual this year,’ said Allison Wolanin, a junior majoring in communication and rhetorical studies. ‘We want to start making homecoming a big tradition here that everyone looks forward to, because it’s been kind of downplayed in recent years. It’s a better process this year that we have; we’re hoping to start a tradition.’

Published on September 16, 2004 at 12:00 pm